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Cunningham Crony Charged In $92 Million Mortgage Fraud

It looks like laundering bribes on behalf of Duke Cunningham may not have been the only shady activity that Thomas Kontogiannis had going on.

The politically connected Greek real-estate developer -- who's already serving jail time for his role in the Cunningham scheme -- has been indicted, along with eight others, for an alleged mortgage fraud scheme, which swindled Washington Mutual and a unit of Credit Suisse out of $92 million.

Here's how the operation worked, according to Reuters:

Federal prosecutors and the FBI said the scheme was centered around property developments that Kontogiannis bought and subdivided from 2001 to 2003 in the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens.

To finance the projects, the defendants are accused of staging sales of the properties financed by mortgage loans. Bogus appraisals supported the price of the properties, even where buildings had not yet been constructed or had fictional addresses, said the U.S. Attorney's Office in Brooklyn, which is prosecuting the case.

The loans were financed by lenders controlled by Kontogiannis and later sold to Washington Mutual and DLJ, prosecutors said.

Entities controlled by Kontogiannis made monthly payments on the mortgages, ensuring that none became delinquent, until the payments ceased in 2007 with about $92 million in principal outstanding on the fraudulent loans, prosecutors said.

Kontogiannis is charged with conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud.

In the Cunningham case, Kontogiannis helped finance the purchase of two homes, for the then-lawmaker, even though he knew that the money for the purchases had likely been obtained illegally. He also bought a yacht from Cunningham, at a considerably inflated price. Prosecutors argued that in exchange, he used the GOP congressman to meet world leaders, including President Bush and the Saudi crown prince.


4 Comments

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The feds knew TommyK was mortgage fraudstering when they offered him a plea deal that would recommend probation (again).
It was only after TommyK tried to force his nephew to take a year in the slammer and his nephew went public with his uncle's mortgage frauds that the feds had to recommend a sentence.

So, the unanswered questions are:
1) Why did the feds ignore the mortgage fraud?
2) How many others who engaged in mortgage fraud did they purposely ignore?
3) Why are parts of Kontogiannis hearings/pleas in the Duke Cunningham case STILL covered by "state secrets" designation ?

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And
4) Why did Duke and his friends pick up TommyK in Greece when they went to visit the Saudi royals?

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why is this scan-of-a-drivers-license (or whatever) the best mugshot available?

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According to Newsday, the 9 defendants are John Michael, Elias Apergis, Steven Martini, Nadia Konstantinadou, Stefan Delgiannis, Ted Doumazios, Edward Hogan and Jonathan Rubin.

John Michael, of course, was a co-defendant in the Duke Cunningham bribery case who received 5 years probation and a $100k fine.

I believe Elias Apergis is married to Tommy K's daughter, Annette Apergis. Annette acquired the Sanderson State Bank in Texas in 2002, the same year that Tommy L. pled guilty to bribing the NYC school board.

Apergis and the bank agreed to a cease-and-desist order by the FDIC and Texas state banking commission in October 2008 regarding various violations of banking laws including funding bad loans.

Annette Apergis is also bought the Nassau County property owned by the Philip Halpern's uncle's estate. Halpern was the prosector in the Cunningham case which caused some people to speculate as to the leniency shown Kontogiannis.

Kontogiannis and his three daughters were named in a RICO civil suit filed in 2008 in connection with Chloe Foods and Blue Ridge Farms, a food distributor. The case was settled ultimately settled for $800k. The web of shell corporations alone makes for a fascinating read.

The current federal charges against Kontogiannis et al may have been spurred on by a civil suit brought by DLJ Mortgage Capital in November 2008. The suit named all of the people charged now plus the Kontogiannis daughters and a number of corporations.

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